The 14th Edition of this popular problem-oriented coursebook introduces law students to the conduct of business in the world community. Problems on international contracting, digital trade and privacy, financing, regulation of imports and exports, licensing and technology transfers, trade-related intellectual property protection, foreign investment, and international business dispute resolution are included. The book provides current in-depth examination of issues business clients are likely to face, such as contracting for sales across borders, financing international transactions, defending against import competition, expanding exports and overseas markets, investing abroad and dealing with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other trade agreements. The coursebook is designed to survey a wide range of laws involving trade, licensing and investment and to explore how issues and problems are addressed by lawyers as problem solvers and risk managers.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 05/20/2024

Ralph H. Folsom, University of San Diego School of Law

Michael P. Van Alstine, University of Maryland School of Law

Michael D. Ramsey, University of San Diego School of Law

Matthew P. Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
  • Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

The book has been substantially updated to cover wide-ranging recent developments in international business and trade law. In particular, it addresses the continuing controversies over contract formation (especially regarding the “battle of the forms”) in international business transactions, covers the recent comprehensive revisions of the International Chamber of Commerce’s influential Incoterms, and adds a problem on the burgeoning field of digital trade as well as on related issues of data privacy. Additionally, the problems on trade law are updated to reflect developments associated with the Biden administration, including continued imposition of additional tariffs on imports from China, new customs laws related to companies’ efforts to avoid China origin for imports, ongoing disfunction within the WTO dispute settlement system, USMCA implementation, bilateral and regional trade negotiations that do not include traditional market-access (tariff-cutting) provisions, and more stringent Buy American policies. It also contains a new problem on trade remedies, taking account of the reinvigoration of additional trade remedy laws beyond countervailing duties and anti-dumping duties during the past two Administrations. The exports chapter is updated to account for new export controls responding to concerns over China’s high-technology policies and new developments regarding the Cuba embargo and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement fostered by the UN Human Rights Council. The technology chapter has added new material on drafting franchise agreements and franchising in Canada, the complexities of blocking the import of patent infringing products, and the intricacies of possible compulsory licensing of pharmaceuticals and COVID vaccines to address health crises in developing countries under the WTO system. For foreign investment, the new edition adds an updated treatment of currency risk, additional material on investment protection under regional free trade agreements, an introduction to the new Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and new cases and developments in human rights litigation.

Learn more about this series.